Congressman-elect Randy Feenstra was one of 80 members of the U.S. House of Representatives to sign a letter to House leadership asking them to continue to allow representatives to carry on Capitol grounds.
“I will always fight for every American’s constitutional Second Amendment rights,” Feenstra said on Twitter.
The letter, addressed to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, point out that Capitol Police Board regulations have helped protect members of Congress for more than 50 years. It asks that leadership not include any provisions in the House Rules package that attempt to alter these protections.
“Currently, members of Congress are allowed to carry firearms within the U.S. Capitol complex as a result of U.S. Capitol Police Board’s regulations and 40 U.S.C. 5104. The current regulations allowing members of Congress to carry have helped protect these members and their Second Amendment rights since 1967,” the letter states.
More than two dozen states allow guns in capitol buildings, according to the letter.
“Washington D.C. has a violent crime problem and D.C.’s violent crime rate is 158 percent higher than the national average,” the letter says. “In 2020 alone, there have been more than 180 homicides, more than 1,500 assaults with a deadly weapon and more than 1,800 robberies.”
If members aren’t allowed to carry on Capitol grounds, they can’t protect themselves in D.C. while making their way to and from their offices to perform their official duties, the letter adds.
Congressman Steve King also signed the letter.
Feenstra and King are the only representatives from Iowa who signed the letter.
